Tag: Tunisia

Tunisia defeats Iran in a practice unofficial game.

Tunisia defeated Iran 2-0 in Doha in the final preparations games for both teams before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The first half ended goalless while in the second half, Tunisia was awarded a penalty after Abolfazl Jalali was judged to handle the ball. Naim Al Slaiti scored the spot kick in the 62nd minute. Ali AlAyed scored seven minutes later.

The match saw wholesome substitutions which exceeded the FIFA International matches guidelines

As reported by the Iranian press, evidently in accurately, 22 players took part in the match. It mentions that Beiranvand only played 60 minutes but there was no mention of the substituted goalkeeper in the list.
Players’ jersey numbers and the minutes played are as follows:

1- Alireza Beiranvand 60
2- Mehdi Torabi 45;
3- Hossein Kananizadegan; 45
4- Abolfazl Jalali; 30 (75 minute dismissal)
5- Morteza Pouraliganji; 45
6- Seyed Majid Hosseini; 45
7-Vahid Amiri; 45
9- Karim Ansarifard; 45
10- Mehdi Tarimi; 45
11- Alireza Jahanbakhsh; 45
13- Rozbeh Cheshmi; 45
14- Ahmad Noorolahi; 45
15- Ehsan Haj Safi; 45
16- Ali Gholizadeh; 45
17- Sadegh Moharrami; 45
18- Saman Ghoddos; 45
19- Saeed Ezzatollahi; 45
20- Milad Mohammadi; 45
21- Ali Karimi; 45
23- Shoja Khalilzadeh; 45
25- Ramin Rezaian; 45
30- Seyed Hossein Hosseini; 30

Tunisia Starting Lineup

Ayman Dahman, Muntasir al-Talibi, Nader al-Ghandari, Yassin Miriah, Muhammad Darajer, Ali al-Abedi, Elias al-Sakhiri, Issa al-Aydouni, Hannibal al-Majbri, Youssef al-Masakni and Wahbi al-Khazri.

However, the Tunisian coach changed the whole team in the second half.

Two more friendly games for Team Melli.

According to the official website of Iran’s football federation FFIRI, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, the vice president of the federation, said: “Following the start of the preparation process of the national team for a powerful presence in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, a friendly international match has been finalized against Nicaragua was determined. “Team Melli and Nicaragua will face off on November 10th in Tehran at 19:30. Furthermore, Mohammad Nabi said: “The national team will face the Tunisian national football team in their last preparatory meeting before the start of the World Cup. This meeting will be held on November 16th in Doha, Qatar.

Team Melli has never played Nicaragua and this central American team will be the 124th country that Team Melli has faced in its illustrious history. On the other hand, Iran and Tunis met twice with Tunisia winning once and the other match ending in a draw.

Iran MP slams appearance of Shojaei & Hajsafi in Team Melli

By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE FOOTBALL

Sunday March 25, 2018

TEHRAN, Iran, Mar 25 – A conservative lawmaker in Iran slammed the sports federation on Sunday for allowing star footballer Masoud Shojaei to return to the international squad despite appearing against an Israeli team last year.

Shojaei, the 33-year-old national team captain, and teammate Ehsan Haji Safi were criticised in Iran after they appeared for their Greek club Panionios last August in a Europa League qualifier against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Deputy Sports Minister Mohammad Reza Davarzani said at the time that the pair would be banned for life.

Iran does not recognise the Jewish state and bars its athletes from appearing against Israelis.

Confusion has reigned over the matter, however, with Haji Safi never banned from the international squad, while Shojaei has missed all the international fixtures until Friday’s match against Tunisia, which Iran lost 1-0.

“Re-inviting Masoud Shojaei to be present in the national football team — after competing against the Zionist regime — shows that the football federation has not taken serious action on this issue,” hardline lawmaker Mohammad Ali Poormokhtar said in an interview with the conservative Fars news agency.

He said the sports minister would be questioned after the current break for the Iranian new year.

A combination photo shows Iran’s Ehsan Haji Safi (L) playing during a 2014 World Cup qualifying football match and Iran’s Masoud Shojaei playing during a World Cup 2018 qualifying match © AFP / Behrouz MEHRI, Karim JAAFAR

In a press conference ahead of the Tunisia match, Shojaei said: “I am very happy to be a member of this team. Although the final list (for the World Cup squad) has not been announced yet, the fact that right now I am in this team means I am very happy and proud.”

Iran cannot admit it bans players for appearing against Israelis because there are strict international rules against political interference in sports.

The issue has come to the fore in recent weeks after wrestler Alireza Karimi Mashiani was given a six-month ban for deliberately losing a world championship match in Poland in November in order to avoid an Israeli opponent in the next round.

The head of Iran’s wrestling federation quit last month in disgust, saying young athletes were being forced to lie and the authorities were letting them pay the price for their policies.

“Forcing an athlete to accept defeat or run around all night looking for a doctor’s note is not right,” Rasoul Khadem, an Olympic gold medallist, told public radio ahead of his resignation.

Iran is due to play another friendly against Algeria in Tehran on Tuesday.

Narrow loss to Tunisia

TUNIS – A fortunate own goal handed Tunisia a 1-0 victory over Iran in their friendly clash on a waterlogged pitch in Tunis on Friday, in what was a morale boosting result for the World Cup-bound north Africans.

Wahbi Khazri proved the talisman for the home side and it was his dribbling run that led to the 71st minute winner. Khazri’s shot was parried by Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand into the path of defender Milad Mohammadi, who could only turn the ball into his own net.

Carlos Queiroz started the match with 7 regular plays missing but welcoming back the veteran Captain Masoud Shojaei who played in the first half.

Despite the water-logged pitch , Team Melli played a fluent game with many passing moves into the host box. In fact , if it was not for that perennial problem that Iran seem to always have with Arab referees, Team Melli would have been awarded a penalty in what looked a like a very obvious foul in the penalty box on Karim Ansarifard. To the horror of the Olympiakos forward, the Egyptian referee played on. Several replays by the Tunisian referee only made the case of a penalty that much stronger.

The new defensive line up at the back stood well against the quick and agile Tunisian ,however , there was very few serious attempt at Biranvand goal.

The first half ended goal less.

In the second half and with many substitution, the game lost a bit of its excitement. Team Melli was the more organized in the middle of the field , but the problem was in the forward line. Absence of Taremi and Azmoun was quite noticeable up front ad neither Ansarifard nor Ghoocannejad managed to seriously threaten the Tunisia goal. Both forwards struggled to convince as an attacking force. Kaveh Rezaei did not fare much better either.
A glorious chance for Team Melli to score was wasted by substitute Mehdi Torabi when he hit the sky with the Tunisia keeper stranded.

Tunisia, who share the same World Cup group with Belgium, England and Panama, might have had a second soon after but Khazri’s powerful close range effort was well saved.

Iran were using the match to approximate the playing style of Morocco, who share their group in Russia with Portugal and Spain.

A dipping free kick from captain Ehsan Hajsafi in the 67th minute, saved by Tunisia’s Farouk Ben Mustapha, was the closest Iran came to scoring.

Vahid Amiri , so reliable on the flanks during the World Cup qualifiers lacked his normal agility and pace. Alireza Jahanbakhsh was introduced too late to make an impact.

Overall, the loss to Tunisia , gave Queiroz some good insight inb the capabilties of the second string team.

Team Melli’s take another north African country, Algeria, in Graz, Austria on Tuesday.

Queiroz hopeful to make it to Round 16 in the World Cup 2018

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz said in an interview with Agência Efe that he believes he can take his team to the Round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and chose the country where he was born in Portugal as a ” Group B” favorite, completed by Spain and Morocco.

In charge of the Iranian team since 2011, Queiroz has made the Team Melli one of the top teams in Asia, beating virtually all regional rivals in the World Cup preparation round.

Despite the confidence in his team, Queiroz acknowledges that Spain is not only favorite to pass the stage, but also to the title.

“Iran is a country that is not on the list of priorities for the press, but the work we have done in recent years deserves a little more attention. Overall, Asian football is not always present in the news, unless you speak Japan and Korea, which have a lot of influence in Europe in general, “he said.

In the friendly of this Fifa day, Queiroz chose to face two rivals of the region. First, playing Tunisia, who are in Group G of the World Cup. Then he takes his team to face Algeria, who competed in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but did not qualify to Russia 2018.

“We always have a lot of difficulties during the preparation. There are some issues we are always struggling with, such as financial difficulties and relations with other countries, which are sometimes not easy for Iran. But we always try to do our best and, with colleagues, seek solutions, “explained the Portuguese head coach.

“We are going to play with Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey, which everyone knows is very strong even though they are not in the World Cup, as well as with Greece and Lithuania, we are better than we were in the last World Cup when we practically did not play with anyone,” he said.

Asked if group B is the group of death, Queiroz stressed that the two favorites are Spain and Portugal, but said nothing is decided. For him, Iran and Morocco are outsiders but will try to qualify for a place in the last 16 of the World Cup.

“It is no secret that Spain and Portugal are favorites, but I do know that Iran will be there, and it is very difficult to know who will advance, I do not want to choose, but it will be them (the Spanish team) who will decide, but I want Iran and Portugal to move on, “he said.

Team Melli arrives in Tunis

Iran’s Team Melli landed in Tunis today ahead of the friendly international match against the Tunisian National Football team on Friday 23rd march 2018.

This will be the second test for Team Melli after an easy 4-0 victory by the experimental line up last Saturday in Azadi. Queiroz is expected to field a much stronger team in FIFA day against Tunisia. All the legionnaires have will joined the squad in Tunis and then for the Algeria game in Austria,

Tunisia coach Nabil Maaloul has named four France-born players, including Leicester City defender Yohan Benalouane, in his 28-man squad for the World Cup warm-up matche against Iran.

Former France youth internationals Seifeddine Khaoui, Ellyes Skhiri and Mouez Hassen, who all pledged their futures to the Carthage Eagles this year, have been called up.

But Leicester’s Yohan Benalouane, who had previously rejected Tunisia, was a surprise inclusion for the fixtures against Iran and Costa Rica, BBC reported.

Centre-back Benalouane is a former France Under-21 international and despite opting to represent Tunisia – the country of his parents – in 2010, he refused to honor several calls to play for the North Africans.

Experienced defender Aymen Abdennour, 28, has been overlooked due to lack of playing time at French club Marseille, while star quintet of Youssef Msakni, Wahbi Khazri, Mohamed Amine Ben Amor, Ali Maaloul and Naïm Sliti is included.

Maaloul is hoping the newcomers will add to the depth of talent he can choose from ahead of the final warm-up fixture against Spain in the Russian city of Krasnodar on 9 June.

He will seek to use as many of the players as possible in friendly games as he looks to get his Carthage Eagles squad into shape before their opening 2018 World Cup match against England on 18 June.

Iran have also been drawn in Group B of the 2018 World Cup. Team Melli will open the campaign with a match against Morocco.